The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is helping produce 1,000 of these Random Acts of Culture over the next three years, bringing classical artists out of the performance halls, into the streets

Wanamaker Organ
The Wanamaker Organ located within a spacious 7-story court at Macy's Center City (formerly Wanamaker's department store) is the world's largest operational pipe organ in the world. Built by the Los Angeles Art Organ Company for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the Wanamaker Organ was designed by renowned organ architect George Ashdown Audsley. This heroic instrument had more than 10,000 pipes, and its construction was on such a lavish scale that costs soared to $105,000, bankrupting the builder.

In 1909, Philadelphia merchant-prince John Wanamaker bought the instrument for his new Philadelphia emporium. Despite its immense size, the tone was judged inadequate to fill the huge court. Wanamaker's opened a private pipe-organ factory in the Store attic, employing up to 40 full-time employees to enlarge the instrument. It currently contains 28,500 pipes ranging in size from 1/4 inch to 32 feet.

Commanding these huge resources is a massive console with six ivory keyboards and 729 color-coded stop tablets. There are 168 piston buttons under the keyboards and 42 foot controls. The console weighs 2.5 tons; the entire instrument weighs 287 tons.